Four Day Test Cricket Is Coming

This week, we were reminded that the world doesn’t stay still for very long.

For example, despite decades of global reverence towards Russia in an effort to keep them appeased, Turkey chose to blow one of their fighter jets out of the sky.

Who knows what events that might trigger, but rest assured, the butterfly effect is working overtime.

This week, Cricket Australia delivered its own act of irreverence towards Test cricket by dropping a proverbial bomb on unsuspecting conservative cricket fans.

In their strongest indication yet that Test cricket as we know it is over, CA director Mark Taylor publicly discussed how this format of the game may, with their backing, morph in the future.

Forget the pink ball. This is already yesterday’s news.

No. Cricket Australia want to uproot all that is sacred and dump a folly of seedy disco’s and possibly a brothel where a proud institution once stood.

Well, that’s the viewpoint of some of the sport’s conservatives.

Cricket Australia’s proposal centers around shortening the game to four days, while extending the hours of play to allow for one hundred overs to be bowled in a day. That gives us 400 overs a match, versus the current 450.

The games will nominally run from Thursday through Sunday, following the successful golfing tournament format. Thursday and Friday caters for the corporates, with the weekends focused on families and the average punter.

With this change comes a review of ticket prices and the assumption that they will drop.

It also likely increases bidding during the next round of television rights, with four day games that culminate on a Sunday easier to manage than five day games finishing on a weekday.

Finally, all Test matches are to be played for points. This will crescendo into a Test match championship every four years.

It somewhat mirrors the way First Class cricket is played. Four day matches. A points table. A final. Someone will be crowned World Champion.

Most interesting is that currently, every domestic four day game brings a result of some kind or another. Depending on the points system, it forces faster play and more daring declarations.

All in all, there’s a lot of change coming.

The stark reality is that the game has never stood still. Yes, One Day and T20 cricket changed the format, but Test match cricket has also been on its own journey of discovery and enlightenment.

Matches used to be timeless.

Pitches used to be uncovered.

The LBW law has changed.

Running a single off a no ball did not add to the score.

Penalty runs for hitting a helmet were never a thing.

The 6 match Test series existed.

Playing under lights to extend the hours of play was unheard of.

DRS.

Changes in bat design.

Now the pink ball.

You get the point.

Test cricket is a fluid beast, meandering like the Ganges and ever shifting like the borders of Europe.

As MC Hammer once probably didn’t quite say, “you can’t stop this“.

The most ridiculous argument against change is that we will need to keep different statistics.

The game of Test cricket is loaded with variables.

What was the weather like? What brand of ball was used? How many overs did the strike bowler deliver? At what position did the best batsman come in? How was the pitch? How far out were the boundaries?

I could go on.

Despite all of this, we still say Bradman’s batting average is the best way to benchmark a batsman’s worth or that the greatest of bowlers average under 25. Yet we do not segment via the examples of variability highlighted above.

It is all just wrapped up in the comfortable blanket of “Test match statistics”.

The one potential drawback is the impact of weather, but it is not as big as it may appear on the surface.

Essentially, any time lost in either a 4 or 5 day game has almost the exact same chance of recovery.

To illustrate, a washout on Day 2 of a 5 Day Test match currently gives you three days in which to recover time.

A washout on Day 1 of a four day game also gives you three days in which to recover time.

Cricket Australia intend to take a proposal to the ICC for discussion, debate and ratification.

There’s no holding back this tide. It’s like trying to stop tectonic plate movements with a bag of marshmallows.

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16 Comments

Dennis, these are all good points and while my initial reaction was “they’re ruining the game” I am slightly less concerned by reading your arguments. But it removes one of the great joys of my life. And that is Monday nights when on business travel there is the delicious prospect of a fifth day demolition of England somewhere on the subcontinet/mid east/Sri Lanka. No wives or kids to bug me in my hotel room drinking beer and watching hapless English batsmen all at sea against offies bowling straight ones. This will be the hardest thing to give up!

G’day Dennis, Test match Cricket , like you say is ever changing, and there a bunch more that you didn’t talk about like the no ball rule moving from back foot to front foot, 2 Bouncer rule ( thank’s West indies ) 2 fielders behind square on leg side ( thanks Mr Jardine , leave our bloody flys alone) 1889 overs were changed from 4 balls to 5 , then in 1900 to 6 balls per over then in 1922 Australia was allowed 8 ball per over then in 1947 it was decided it could be 6 or 8 ball overs with captains agreement. SO Test Cricket has never stood still. Evolve or die.
BTW you should do a piece on why the bowling crease is irrelevant and should be removed , i mean what does it do, what role does it play in Cricket in this day and age ?

For a start, the problem is not Test cricket per se. Nearly 50,000 paid to watch a Test in 2015 featuring New Zealand, who is not even one of the “glamour” teams! Clearly Test cricket still has a mass appeal. The problem is the influence of domestic T20 competitions in some parts of the world. In India in 2015 a series versus South Africa hardly drew 100 spectators on some days. The causes of this are in part the imbalance of interest in the IPL. Since the IPL is able to feature great national heroes who no longer play at international level, the current Test team is less interesting to the mass of fans so they are less likely to pay to watch them live. There are other issues with the India game as well obviously, all sorts of scheduling problems.

Other examples of empty stadia are due to political problems in Pakistan or simply that West Indies cricket in general has gone to the dogs.

Next, 100 overs per day is going to necessarily alter the dynamic of teams. If teams are being asked to bowl 100 overs in a day, maybe 150-200 overs across two days, then this is going to limit the selection of fast bowlers and teams are going to be forced to rely on part-time “dibbly dobblers” and spinners to take up the slack. This will be to the detriment of Test cricket since fast bowling is the most glamorous aspect of the game. You can’t expect teams to select three or four out and out pacemen and have them bowl 30 in a single day and then come out next morning and bowl dozens more.

The idea of penalising teams 5 runs per over not bowled changes the game from being one about bowling with skill, to simply being able to get through overs quickly. Again this will appeal to slower bowlers with shorter run ups, etc. The heart of the game is ripped out in one fell swoop. And since more and more matches are failing to go into a 5th day these days anyway, is this change really necessary? Where games fail to go into a 5th day, then that should be fine by those who are proposing 4 day matches; and typically, games that do go into the final day are set up for a good finish, which naturally generates its own excitement and public interest. In the rare occasion that a game drags into the 5th day with a draw being the only possible outcome, then this is usually due to the fault of the groundsman in preparing a flat wicket (for example, the Perth Test between NZ and Australia in 2015).

In view of all the above, this proposal is ill-conceived and unnecessary.